Hidden Deep Within
by sylph-feather
Summary: After the Darklands, something shifts inside Jim. It makes its presence well known after his visit to the Deep. (rewrite)
1. Deepest and Darkest

When Jim first entered the Deep, he was determined to stay as close to the fallen cage as possible— perhaps Claire could shadow staff in, contrary to their beliefs that it was impossible…? Or perhaps… another solution. Jim could admit that the reasoning was not his finest, but in his defence the boy was also pretty desperate to get out of the foreboding cave.

Oh, he had tried. An hour worth of tries, and all he had to show for it was scuffed armor and a more panicked outlook on the situation.

Try as he might, the wall was simply too tall to climb up and out, painful falls awaiting him each time. If he wasn't careful, an unlucky tumble could be the end of the Trollhunter.

It wasn't like he didn't want out; the air was oppressing, reminding him of the darklands. He could almost hear another deadly wyrm slithering, and—

He shook his head, ridding himself of that bad path, instead focussed on running his hands along the cage. The horrible scraping sound brought Jim back to the present.

Oddly enough, nothing had happened yet asides from the miraculously survived falls— Jim felt he should question that considering Fate's apparent hatred of him but ultimately decided to not look a gift horse in its creepy and cavernous mouth, and to simply count his blessings and wait.

This lasted for _maybe_ ten minutes.

There was not a perfectly logical explanation for any of "it" (as was typical in Jim's life).

 _It_ started as a faint tingle on the edges of Jim's senses about five minutes into waiting, while Jim was entertaining the thought of a flying Warhammer lifting himself and Toby out of the gloom. Nothing miraculous, just the faint feeling of eyes on his back that interrupted the pleasant daydream.

This feeling lasted about a minute, setting him on edge, and then it intensified suddenly— it was as though Jim could feel the waves of cruel intent rolling off the creature, and he reached for his sword, vision flickering. There was the vague outline of the cart and someone sitting there in between moments, before he snapped back to his own view. He blinked rapidly, bobbing the sword threatening.

A low laugh echoed through the caverns, causing Jim to jump noisily to his feet, Daylight shining with intensity that betrayed uneasiness.

A shadow slunk out of a stalactite, as though it had been one with it and was separating. Jim readied his sword, flashing it up in the thing's direction, only for the creature to bounce down and out if site once more.

Each time he swung his sword in the direction of movement in the hope of a glimpse, the thing would only bound away again and once again become a flicker at the edge of his vision with a gravelly cackle.

And then, he hopped off the cage and leapt after it, thus ending his ten minutes of waiting in vain for an escape.

—-

 _Maybe it's leading me to an exit,_ Jim considered hopefully. Of course, he wasn't that stupid; he knew the creature likely planned to attack him at some point, hence why he followed it— better to be on the offensive than sitting on a cage and desperately flailing his sword around.

He leapt gracefully over another stalagmite, watching as the shadow sprung ahead on deer legs twice as fast.

It looked vaguely like a troll, though not one of the huge buff ones; something graceful and deer like, and more flighty. Of course, it was hard to tell in the shadow; perhaps the beast was a shadow, with the only defining feature being those luminous eyes—

Wait a second—

Jim nearly tripped over a rock when he realized that the creature had slowed to run the the side of him, staring playfully and cruelly with its huge eyes. The left shone a bright blue, and had a creepy cat slit, but the other was worse. It held nothing, only pale white, and it shone like a flashlight. Jim could feel the piercing gaze worm its way into his very soul.

The beast laughed at his shock, snapped its fangs, and scampered ahead before daylight could bite into it.

Jim continued running after it, tracking his every turn and praying that he would not wind up lost.

—-

To the surprise of no one, Jim wound up lost.

He tried to look on the bright side of things; maybe he could find an alternate exit of some sort, since the climb clearly was not working. He would figure it out. He always did.

Unfortunately that sounded a bit desperate, even to his own ears, and the creature seemed to sense his sudden and quiet panic.

It abruptly whipped around, eyes staring like spotlights on him. There was flash of smoky red light, and a brief glimpse of flesh and terrible black stone meeting in jagged lines— and suddenly—

 _That can't be right,_ Jim thought stupidly, staring at the grinning shadow who was now garbed in his eclipse armor.

"That's mine," he informed the creature in an uncomprehending manner. It drew its sword, and Jim stated, "that is also mine."

And then he started running when the shadow swung it in a deadly arc, leaving red vapor in its wake.


	2. Emerge

**hecc i forgot to do an A/N last time, whoops. anyways sorry for rewriting this but once again I will say I want this work to be worthy of its popularity. I don't really wanna be "known" for something that's not my best work. and trust me, that story... was definitely not my best.**

 **Anyways, welcome newcomers, too! I'm glad to see new and old reading this.**

"You can't have my armor!" Jim yelled at the creature between blows, as though telling it such would suddenly compel it to say, " _yes Jim, you're right, I'm sorry. Please take this back."_

Instead, it just gave a shrug and snapped its gleaming teeth before diving at Jim once more.

The human was weakening quicky, no match for this snarling thing.

He was no longer sure that this beast was a troll or demon of the Deep— he had caught a glimpse of soft pink flesh amongst the jagged black.

And… between sparks of traded blows… there lay something familiar in those eyes, in the human parts of the abomination's face.

Jim decided to ignore all this, as when he got caught up in thinking too hard the thing had nearly chopped his head off. Jim cursed himself for his own sloppy timing and decided denial was the best route to avoid deadly distraction.

Many blows were traded, and Jim could tell that while he was flagging, the creature was not. Despite the clear gap in skill and speed, evident when the creature flickered around him, he still remained intact. It was a while into the battle when Jim indignantly noticed such.

"You're toying with me!" he barked indignantly, armor flaring and underlining the fear of his statement. He raised his sword, and continued, "you'll pay for that."

The thing only laughed, looking at him as a cougar looked upon a yappy chihuahua who believes it's bigger than it truly is. The beast furthered this metaphor by showing its fangs and licking its chops with a pale blue tongue, leaving the boy shuddering.

Jim braced himself for an attack, only for the beast to wink its blue eye and blend into a the shadows around it. Jim could hear a faint clopling of its hooves as it dashed away.

The feeling of being watched eased, leaving him alone in the cavern once more, with thoughts whirling around his mind.

It felt like days that Jim had been wandering through the Deep, swallowed by darkness and claustrophobic in his own fear-summoned armor. In truth, without the sun, he had no clue, not to mention that Blinky had told him the Deep messed with the mind.

In the dark, alone, he often found his mind trapped between the Darklands and the present, worrying about another wyrm or Gunmar's gladiatorial arena before snapping back to the present.

Each time, he'd catch a flicker of a shadow with bright, cruel eyes darting off, and each time he'd rub his own eyes, feeling the way the bags under his eyes gave way to the silver armor.

On one such time, he gave a hopeless sigh and dropped to the floor. Oddly, he was not hungry nor thirsty, yet as he continued on he grew more and more tired.

This time, he was near the brink of exhaustion.

"Lay down _,"_ the darkness crooned, watching him with mismatched eyes.

"Mmph," Jim grunted in response.

"Just for a little while," it said smally, creeping closer.

The Trollhunter was too tired to argue, giving only a slow blink. He rested his head on his hands and slowly drifted…

"Surrender your will," the creature ground out, virtually on top of the boy now. Eclipse was drawn, red flames intermingling with a pale and familiar magic—

Jim bolted awake.

Nothing was there.

More days passed, and with each Jim grew more and more delirious. Sleep offered no reprieve. Typically it was interrupted by the conniving shadow, and when it wasn't it simply offered him no energy at all.

His steps grew more stumbly, grip more tenuous. The beast plagued him constantly, forcing him to take in the creature's too-similar visage. The flesh was slowly being overtaken by stone, and he noticed a tail and glowing horns growing with passing time. Its blue eye began to cloud over with the white glow of the other.

Jim ignored it, and stumbled forward, desperately pushing for any exit.

Days continued to pass, leaving the boy bleary and barely-there, with the shadow ever present to cackle and jeer.

"Your will is becoming weak," it informed him one day, smooth stone claws running against a small soft piece of flesh on the back of its hand. "Soon, I will be finished, and you will be next, puppet."

Jim stared at the beast with sleepy confusion.

"You want to ask why? Well—" the creature snorted, overcome for a moment, "maybe you _are_ an idiot. I'm glad he used his sword to break me off from you."

The beast took Jim's silence as shock.

"I'm the piece of your will Gunmar broke off in the Darklands, shaped into this," he said reverently, stretching claws and tail. "I may only live inside you, but soon…" it trailed off, and motioned to the boy's hand.

Jim placed his left hand over his right, and found a small hard chunk of black stone there.

"I will be the only one," the thing smiled, lost in thoughts of serving the master controlling it so artfully, as Jim sat there, stunned.


	3. Out of the Deep

"You're me?" Jim asked wheezily, more awake now. As usual, he turned to his normal method of denial, and ignored the obsidian growth on his hand.

"No!" the thing growled, offended. "I am a piece of corruption within your very soul!"

"But you still _are_ part of me, then."

"DETAILS!" Not-Jim roared, then calmed and resorted to growling.

"If you want my body, why not just kill me?" Jim sighed, motioning to his obviously weak self, barely able to clasp Daylight in defense. The creature still kept its distance— it had learned to be cautious when Jim pretended to give in and then attempted to take a stab.

"Are you _that_ stupid, or just tired? I need your body to _have_ a body idiot. If it wasn't for that, I would've killed you on sight. As it is, breaking the rest of your will is needed. It will be… fun," the creature hummed, dancing showily away from Jim's weak sword swings. It gave a mock little wave before bouncing off into the darkness. From afar, he saw it wink and give a little "follow me" motion.

Hold up—

The darkness _wasn't_ so dark that way?

Jim snatched hold of the scraps of adrenaline and surge of hope and bounded forward, seeing a small ray of light peeking through a stone. He touched it reverently, then drew out his sword to begin chinking away.

—-

He crept out, ducking beneath the orange crystals of Vendel's room, watching as Usurna killing Vendel was projected magically to his friends, who cried out and gave him a tight hug.

—

When he exited the room, he briefly wondered how he had gone through all that in the space of what appeared to be a few hours and wandered for miles in caverns only to turn up feet away from his starting spot, but decided to chalk it up to _magic_. That seemed to be the explanation for most things in his life these days.

Along the way out, all the while attempting to avoid Usurna's guard, he glanced at the back of his hand, and… nothing was there. Well, Blinky did say the Deep messed with your head…

Perhaps none of that had even happened?

In fact, now that he mulled it over, what sense did any of that make? A shadowy troll version of himself that was slowly turning him into Gunmar's servant? That sounded ridiculous even in his head, let alone out loud. Besides, why would a clearly evil creature show him the exit if it were to break his will? It made no sense.

Jim simply released his muddled thoughts and focused on Blinky's yammering of evacuation plans, plans to tell the troll public, and escape before Usurna did something even more terrible.


	4. Rift

The Trollhunter gang snuck in, expecting perhaps to find Gunmar relishing his full fledged return. Perhaps this was how it went in another universe, but alas, Usurna was far more crafty in this one.

Instead, they found Usurna standing and instructing the trolls, in the middle of a rousing speech.

"The strong must stand over the weak," she said loudly, sweeping her hand over the mass of trolls. "Why would we let a weak and foolish human trollhunter lead us? Look what has become of us! He has lead us astray, released Gunmar, for he was not strong enough to beat any one of us, let alone the mighty GummGumm!"

The trollhunters looked at each other warily from their hiding spots. The cheers did not sound good to them, and they slunk away, into the sewers.

xxx

Once they were of a safe distance away, Toby whipped around and cawed, "WHAT WAS THAT?"

Blink merely frowned, deeply troubled. Jim placed a hand on his stony skin.

"I believe Usurna is going to attempt to turn Troll Market against the lot of us, and hide away Vendel's death— possibly both, in one fell swoop. She is likely blaming us this very moment."

"Well, we can just use the memory thingy to show everyone the real killer!" Toby argued petulantly.

"The Oriae stone only shows a memory a single time; memories are powerful things that cannot be crystalized and preserved well."

"Well, then we go in and attack—" Toby started, but Jim softly cut him off.

"For now, we avoid the market then," Jim sighed, absently rubbing the spot on his hand that was previously hard with stone, those memories so buried under the current dilemma they were nigh forgotten. "We need a plan, and if we fight Usurna we don't do anything but prove her right."

"Well said my dear boy," Blinky agreed with a solemn nod.

"Where will they go, then? The sewers aren't that great of a hiding spot," Claire pointed out.

"Basement?" AAARRRGGHH! questioned.

"Basement," Jim agreed.

"I _knew_ I saw something that one time," Claire mumbled behind them as the group took the maze of tunnels that lead to Jim's house.

xxx

 **This chapter was short, but eh. Whatever. Until next time! Reviews are much appreciated, and really keep me going, so thanks!**


	5. Shadows

**wow these last 2 months have been super hectic! halloween… fall break… finals…** _ **hospitals…**_ **ugh. Sorry for being so lackadaisical about updating and all. (I like that word a lot. Lackadaisical is a good word.)**

 **Anyways. Nothing like a little pinch of pain meds to get the inspiration flowing, amirite? Enjoy the chapter.**

 **Oh also, since FFN's commenting system is complete garbage I'm gonna start leaving short replies to anything I deem relevant at the bottom. More involved than thanks, though thank you to all that leave reviews, as they really keep me going :)**

xXx

The trio emerged from the basement, AAARRRGGHH! and Blinky waving them goodbye as they began to seal the door. Of course, such a paltry barricade of brooms and old floor boards would not do much to stop a troll, but it would go lengths in keeping Barbara away from the trolls living beneath her feet.

Jim merely gave a faint _whuff_ of relief once out of the creepy basement, releasing the daylight armor quietly. He flopped on the couch, quickly followed by his companions.

"What now?" Claire voiced, and Jim merely gave a very informative groan while grinding his hands into his eyes. Toby patted his shoulder and gave Claire a shrug.

"Food?" he prompted as though it were a question, but Toby didn't wait for answers before he was in the kitchen, fishing out delicious leftovers.

The smell of microwaved food drew Jim out of his stressed stupor, and he lost more tension as Toby dumped a meal on him with the unrelenting look of like _eat, or else._

As soon as the food touched his tongue, Jim realized that it perhaps did not taste _quite_ as it was supposed to. Definitely not how it tasted when he made it— a day in the fridge and time in the microwave shouldn't have made the stir fry taste like it was vaguely inedible, after all. Jim quickly shrugged it off as just a side effect of being in the Deep for an odd amount of time, and having nothing to drink or eat in the intermittent period, and ate ravenously due to the gnawing hunger.

(He felt a little sick later, as though it was truly inedible, but he chalked that up to the speed at which he ate it; even Toby was impressed).

After a quiet meal, the group said their quick and worried goodbyes, the stress of their situation lurking beneath the surface as they departed. AAARRRGGHH! left the house with Toby, holing up in his room once more, and Blinky remained hidden away in Jim's basement. Everyone had a tinge of fear in the back of their actions, bitterly tainting the night around them to be something where any shadow could leap forth and attack. Well, more fear at the prospect than normal, at least.

xXx

That night, visions plagued Jim. _Visions_ was perhaps not the right word, as such would imply that he saw a concrete thing; no this was simply flickers out of the corner of his eye. A flash of pale white here, a dark shadow flitting by there; nothing concrete, but it couldn't help but remind him of the demon that resided in the Deep.

His skin felt dry, despite the sweat that had sprung from his fear. He coiled into his bed further, keeping a watchful eye on the vague flickers.

xXx

With each day, the Trollhunters continued their efforts of hiding out and researching Gunmar's weak points- a hard task, considering the lack of Blinky's library. With each passing night, Jim could swear that the flickery shadow was becoming more and more substantial, with the faint clop of hooves and a chuckle defining each rest. Still, when he woke up there was nothing, and nothing pursued him into the day.

On the third day of their hide-out-time, Blinky called a meeting in the very formal location of "Jim's basement." It was the easiest to hide out there; Claire's family was too suspicious and used their basement to often, and Nana had an odd attraction to pickled things. After scouting it out and seeing a jar of finely aged pickled fish that had been sitting there long enough for Blinky to suspect it was comparable to his own age, the trolls refused to stay there. Hence, the meeting held in Jim's dusty basement.

"I've finally decided that the Trollhunters need the full knowledge of my library- we must know how to beat Gunmar!" Blinky started off, cutting straight to the point with a bang of his stony fist.

"Carry library here?" AAARRRGGHH! eloquently questioned, an eager expression on his face.

"We can't carry an entire library, my friend," Blink answered with a soft pat as AAARRRGGHH!'s expression turned to disappointment.

"Besides, we only need the stuff on Gunmar," Claire added.

"Maybe the word juice!" Toby exclaimed, looking excited.

"Do you remember what happened _last_ time? No way," Jim input.

"Calm, calm, I have a plan already. You three must infiltrate Trollmarket and grab the books on this list," Blinky stated simply, holding up the list and tapping the book titles. "To get to the library, take this hole to the sewers and follow the directions here," he explained, pointing to a quickly written list of rights and lefts, which was written above a labeled map of the sewers. "You should pop up right behind my books!"

Jim pulled the list and map into his hands, asking, "any tips for staying unnoticed?"

"Mask your scent- use something putrid. That fish should do nicely!"

The three teens just groaned.

xXx

 **kinda short but eh i needa get back into the swing of things, i suppose!**

 **(my grandmother actually has a pickled fish in her pantry that I suspect to be 50 years old.)**


End file.
